Advertising

[chesneil]

Hi,

I was prompted to write after reading struisje's post about his/her template site, which was locked. I think maybe the main reason this forum has so many (quality) members/postings is that there are rules that are strongly enforced (especially compared to other forums I've browsed). In general, advertising is at best a nuisance for people looking to give or receive help from the many postings here. However, I for one would be glad for some unsolicited URLs if they contained useful, FREE, quality web-building resources that may be useful to me at some stage...even if the site belonged to the person making the posting.

struisje's posting was removed because he advertised his own site, but if someone else answered a thread saying 'you might want to check out [struisje's site]. There's some useful stuff there' then it would be allowed. Ok, in that case it would be in answer to a particular thread, but the result would be the same: some useful information brought to everyone's attention.

If the site in question turns out to be a gambling site then inded the firing squad should be awoken. Therefore there would need to be 'quality checks'. And to repeat myself, whatever was on offer would have to be free. For example, if I was the world's best css scripter and wished to make my vast library available free to the good people of CodingForums, would it not be a little strict to disallow me to do so because it was deemed advertising?

I know I can use a search engine to look for resources, but I could do the same to find answers to a lot of the threads. I'm not trying to rock the boat or anything, so no flames please. I just think it would be nice if there was, perhaps, a separate section for good resources.

Thanks,
chesneil
(no doubt you've had this discussion somewhere down the line, but I'm pretty new around here :o )

[Nightfire]

When you see "See this site http://... " in a post, it is to help someone out if no one can give any more information out, or if they can't explain it properly. That is totally different to just posting your site and trying to get hits. If one person gets away with spamming their site, then everyone else will do it. I've seen many forums that have ended up this way. More spam than real posts. The rules here are strict, but it keeps the forums on topic :)

[webmarkart]

If you look at a lot of people's signatures on the bottom of each of our posts, we (including myself) get away with promoting our sites anyway.

[chesneil]

Nightfire,
Yes, I understand your point and it reflects the overall problem with advertising in forums. But, with all due respect, I think such a wide-sweeping rule can...what shall I say...'stunt provision of information' in the scenario I'm talking about. If you get my drift. For example, my example of the css scripter. If such postings were in a separate section (so people can easily avoid them, and they don't clog up other sections), with strict controls (no crap, a decent description, etc.) then all you have is a list taking up little server space, but in theory a collection of sites that I or anyone could look through to see if there was something to help or enlighten us. And it doesn't have to be your own site. Just some great site that got you out of a fix and you think may help others.

If I have a problem I can post it. But it would be nice to be enlightened on something I never even knew existed. It's difficult to post a question to get that. Why does everything have to start with a question or a problem? Surely a forum can be more than a helpline.

If people nearly always manage to adhere to the rules of the existing sections, why not to the rules of the kind of section I'm talking about. If someone gets a big hit count, for whatever that may be worth, why is that so bad if they're helping others. As long as it's being monitored to ensure the content is concerned with web design then good luck to them. After all, a big hit won't line their pockets (no pop-ups, etc., would have to be another rule!)

Of course this assumes the mods (and general populace) were prepared to monitor the site closely and post honest opinions. Which they're probably not, so I'll end it there.